Follow Us

Melilla, Mexico, and Trump

Related Episode

After our episode about border walls around the world ran, I got an email from Zach Campbell, a journalist in Spain. Zach had helped us with research for the story about the young man who tried to climb the razor wire fences surrounding the spanish city of Melilla.

Related Episodes

He pointed out something kind of amazing — footage of people rushing those same fences had appeared in Donald Trump’s first TV ad when he was running for president. Though the ad did not say that was where the footage was from. In fact the exact words spoken over it were: “And he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.”

The Trump campaign released a statement saying the use of the footage was intentional “and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border.”

I found that even more surprising. The Morocco border with Melilla is anything but open. There are four layers of fences, some almost 20 feet high. With razor wire. There’s also a trench, cameras and guards on both sides. All of that, and it still doesn’t stop people from trying to get across.